The Ministry of Justice of the Slovak Republic has published preliminary information on an amendment to Act No. 307/2016 Coll. on Dunning Proceedings and on Supplementation of Certain Acts and amending and supplementing Act No. 160/2015 Coll., the Civil Disputes Procedure Code. The amendment has been inspired also by decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, concerning Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts.

The current legislation (Act No. 307/2016 Coll. on Dunning Proceedings, and the Civil Disputes Procedure Code) enshrines the obligation to substantively justify an objection to an order demanding payment. Under the amendment, this obligation will not apply if the order for payment is filed by a natural person (defendant) in dunning proceedings or in proceedings for an order for payment according to the Civil Disputes Procedure Code.

As the Ministry states in the preliminary information, “under the proposed legislation, an individual (natural person), as a defendant, will not be required to substantively justify an objection lodged against an order for payment, thus simplifying the objection procedure for individuals and improving their access to justice.”

We point out that an obligation to justify an objection does not even exist in the European order for payment procedure under Regulation (EC) 1896/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 creating a European order for payment procedure.